Build Yourself An Inexpensive Home Gym

(CARLSBAD, CA) - No time to workout? Health clubs too expensive? Want that something extra to supplement home workout videos? Judi Sheppard Missett, Jazzercise founder, offers  a great solution for achieving a healthy new year: an inexpensive home gym!

Variety is the spice of life, and you can create a nifty circuit-training program that provides everything from core training to cardio conditioning to resistance exercises for under $250.

Here’s what you need:

• Core Training: purchase a balance board and/or exercise ball. They range in price from $40 to $80 and $24 to $40 respectively.

• Cardio Conditioning: invest in a bicycle trainer that allows you to use your own bike indoors ($100 and up) and/or an exercise step platform ($80 and up). Then, visit your local video store or library to broaden your workout video/DVD selection at a minimal cost. (You can also dust off those well-intentioned purchases that never quite lived up to their potential, such as stationary bikes, cross-country ski machines, and self-powered elliptical trainers. The beauty of circuit training is that you only have to exercise at each station for 10 to 15 minutes – to brief to get tedious!)

• Resistance Exercises: buy a resistance tube ($10 to $20), dumbbells ($15 to $25 per pair) and/or a medicine ball ($15 and up).

Once you’re equipped, create workout stations in a large open area of your home and spend 10 to 15 minutes exercising at each one. For example:

— warm up with 10 minutes of a gentle yoga video

— spend 15 minutes riding your bike

— move to your exercise ball for sit-ups and other core exercises

— do a series of dance movements that incorporate your step platform (use 10 minutes of the aerobic segment of a step video if you like)

— perform upper body resistance exercises with your resistance tube, dumbbells or medicine ball

— cool down with five to 10 minutes of stretches

Spend some time perusing exercise books, magazines and videos for ideas on specific exercises you can perform at each station. Write down your favorites and keep your eyes open for new ones. Of course, boredom can still rear its ugly head, and when it does try adding music, working out with an exercise buddy or adding new workout stations to your circuit.

Here’s a stability ball exercise to get you started. If you have never used an exercise ball before, don’t be intimidated. With a little practice, anyone can master the basic exercises.  Once you inflate the ball, sit on it and just get used to the feeling of it.  Roll around a little, wiggle your hips, and just get comfortable on the ball. 

Once you are feeling confident, practice rolling up and down the ball.  Start by sitting tall with your feet hip width apart and your knees and toes forward.  Slowly walk forward, allowing your hips to roll down the ball.  Keeping the ball in contact with your back at all times, continue walking until the ball is supporting your back from your shoulder blades to your tail.  Once down there, press your back gently into the ball and “sit” as if you are in an easy chair.  Now slowly walk your feet back in toward the ball and roll back up to the top, keeping your back against the ball the entire time.  Stretch your spine tall at the top, and repeat as desired. 

If your feet are slipping on the floor, try using a sticky mat and keeping your feet and the ball on the mat throughout the entire exercise.  If your back is slipping down the ball, try wearing a shirt that allows some of your back to be in direct contact with the ball.

Jazzercise, created by Judi Sheppard Missett, is the world's leading dance-fitness program with more than 6,800 instructors teaching 30,000 classes weekly in the U.S. and around the globe. Since 1969, millions of people of all ages and fitness levels have reaped the benefits of this comprehensive program, designed to enhance cardiovascular endurance, strength, and flexibility. For more information on Jazzercise go to jazzercise.com or call (800)FIT-IS-IT or (760)476-1750.

Courtesy of Jazzercise, Inc. - jazzercise.com